Cardiac arrest outside of the hospital is nearly always fatal. Despite the fact that for decades, defibrillator technology—which has the potential to restore a survivable heart rhythm when a lethal one has caused the arrest—has been available, the rate of sudden death due to cardiac arrest remains very high.
The crux of the problem is that a defibrillator shock must be administered within a very short time after the onset of the arrest-causing heart rhythm—generally ventricular tachycardia (VT) or ventricular fibrillation (VF). It is estimated that the mortality increases by approximately 10% for each minute after the onset of an arrest. Calling 9-1-1 or the equivalent results in response times that are far too long.
Industry's response has been the development of the automatic external defibrillator (AED). The electrodes of this device are applied to a victim or possible victim by a bystander, the device then analyzes the heart rhythm, and makes a shock/no-shock decision.
Drawbacks of AEDs include:
1) They may malfunction. Numerous examples of such malfunctions have been reported. Some malfunctions are those that can occur with any electronic device, i.e. due to component failure. Other malfunctions may be related to inadequate maintenance of the device by the owner.
Still other problems are due to “pseudo-malfunctions.” One type of pseudo-malfunction is that the algorithm for ECG analysis may fail to properly diagnose the rhythm abnormality. There is no algorithm which is 100% accurate. Thus an AED which fails to shock because it's algorithm is not 100% sensitive (i.e. does not correctly detect 100% of actual VT or VF) may be operating according to specification even at the time of a failure to make a correct diagnosis; If an identical rhythm were presented to another AED with the same algorithm, that AED would also fail to properly diagnose. Another common type of pseudo-malfunction is the user failing to properly use the device.
The current invention addresses the aforementioned issues by providing real-time supervision and management by a remotely located medical professional (MP) operating a remotely controlled defibrillator (RCD), from the moment that defibrillator use begins. The MP analyzes the rhythm—either as the primary means of arriving at a rhythm diagnosis, or by over-reading (and, if necessary, over-ruling) the analysis of the on-scene defibrillator device. The MP has means and methods available to him for use in the event that the rhythm diagnosis is uncertain. The MP makes sure that an untrained or minimally trained user is using the defibrillator device properly. The MP or his associates may assure that the defibrillator device is maintained properly.
2) A second AED drawback: For some victims of an arrest, an older methodologic paradigm entailing the delivery of a shock as soon as possible, seems now to be a sub-optimal approach. Instead, a period of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) preceding a shock seems—for some, but not all victims—to be a better plan. Despite decades of effort by various workers to teach CPR to a broad fraction of the general population, most people do not know how to do it, and do not want to learn how. Furthermore, there is very good evidence that trained physicians and emergency medical technicians often perform CPR sub-optimally.
The current invention addresses these issues by allowing the MP to supervise CPR-related matters. These matters include:                whether to begin CPR first, or whether to shock first instead;        how long CPR should be performed;        when and for how long is it permissible to interrupt CPR;        rate of chest compression;        depth of chest compression;        position of the resuscitating person's hands during CPR;        decision about whether chest ventilation should accompany chest compression;        decision—if ventilation is to be performed—about the admixture of chest compression and ventilation;        assessment of the adequacy of ventilation (i.e. rate and volume of ventilation); and        use of ventilation assistance devices, as are known in the art.        
3) A third AED drawback: For not-hard-to-understand reasons, most people are quite uncomfortable with the notion of presiding over a do-it-yourself cardiac arrest. Voice prompts from an AED do little to allay this anxiety. The anxiety results in limitation of sales and deployment of AEDs and in bystander reluctance to get involved. The aforementioned refers to general anxiety, outside of an actual arrest. During an actual arrest, the anxiety problem increases many-fold. Even experienced physicians and emergency workers are anxious during an actual arrest; As a result their performance suffers. Erratic behavior, and at times chaotic scenes are not entirely uncommon.
The current invention addresses this issue by making the bystander into a “helper” who follows the orders of the MP. The presence of the MP, therefore, removes the single largest source of arrest-related anxiety for the bystander: the enormous responsibility implicit in supervising a “life-and-death” event. Using the invention, the MP can even assist emergency medical technicians who are using a manual defibrillator, if the manual defibrillator is coupled to apparatus described herein, which allows it to be remotely accessed and, if necessary, controlled by a remote medical expert.
4) A fourth AED drawback: legal issues. Although good Samaritan statutes provide protection for some situations, they are not uniform and do not protect the involved bystander or AED owner under all circumstances. Some statues require user training, user AED maintenance and registration with local 9-1-1 authorities. It is not uncommon to see, in public places, an AED cabinet with words similar to: “FOR USE BY TRAINED MEDICAL PERSONNEL ONLY”. A difficult, if not impossible to measure parameter is ‘How many people do not obtain AEDs because of fear of a potentially burdensome legal entanglement?’
A defibrillator which is remotely controlled by an expert medical professional can address the legal issue, by making user competence and proper performance into non-issues.
Another industry innovation for the management of cardiac arrest in a higher risk population than that intended for AED protection is the implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). This device acts as a miniaturized, implantable AED; Indeed, in the early years of its existence, it was referred to as “AID”, an abbreviation of automatic internal defibrillator. It continuously analyzes an internally detected cardiac electrical signal. Upon detection of either VT or VF, it can attempt restoration of a normal rhythm by either shock or overdrive/anti-tachycardia pacing (ATP).
ICD drawbacks are these:
1) Initial Cost. Currently available devices cost about $20,000. The hospitalization for the implant may cost as much as two or more times the device cost. The total cost to the healthcare system for such devices is large. As the medical indications for ICD implantation have broadened, and the number of implants has significantly increased, total costs to the health care system have gone up very substantially. Although indications for some implants are uniformly agreed upon (e.g. cardiac arrest not due to a myocardial infarction in a young person with a depressed ejection fraction and no clear reversible cause), it has become clear that there is a gray-zone of people with intermediate levels of risk, for whom there is not uniform agreement about implantation. Some highly respected authorities have raised serious concerns about excessive or potentially excessive numbers of ICD implants. Although home AEDs are a possible alternative to ICDs in such gray-zone situations, there has been extraordinarily little enthusiasm for this approach, among physicians and patients.
2) Maintenance cost. ICDs have a finite battery life, and must be replaced—about once every six years, depending on device use. Furthermore, the devices need to be checked by a medical professional intermittently. The schedule for such checks may be as infrequent as once very four months, or much more frequently, if the patient is experiencing difficulties due to frequent rhythm abnormalities.
3) Reliability. Though they seldom fail to shock for an actual VT or VF event, various lower level device malfunctions are not uncommon. All U.S. manufacturers have reported component and software failures from time to time during recent years, some catastrophic, resulting in death. Furthermore, pseudo-malfunctions, i.e. malfunctions due to improper programming are possible and certainly do happen. For example, if the device is programmed to detect VT at rates above 180 beats per minute (b.p.m.), and the ICD owner develops VT as 170, the device will not treat the event. Simply programming the device to a low value of rate cutoff (e.g. 140 b.p.m.) potentially sets the patient up for another type of common pseudo-malfunction: receiving shocks for a rhythm which is not VT or VF. Inappropriate shocks can be a big problem because                not infrequently, they occur as clusters of events, sometimes entailing numerous shocks;        the shock, though brief, is painful, and generally heightens the patient's anxiety level for quite some time beyond the actual event.        
Remotely controlled defibrillator technology addresses these problems in the following ways:
1) It provides a protection system for low to intermediate risk patients, which is far less costly than an ICD and more attractive than an AED, for the aforementioned reasons.
2) It provides a means of remotely controlling ICDs which would allow a remotely located medical professional to over-ride the decision of an ICD in the event that:                one or more shocks were delivered inappropriately;        a shock was not delivered, and should have been;        a series of shocks was ineffective, and additional ones are appropriate but the device algorithm does not call for them; and        if a level of therapy less aggressive than shocks (e.g. ATP) is appropriate.        
3) It allows for the detection of device malfunction in real-time, either by the detection of an inappropriate treatment, or by the real-time or nearly real-time detection of a telemetry abnormality concerning device self-testing and self-monitoring. Furthermore, remotely controlled ICD programming would allow for the possibility of a remotely supervised remedy of a malfunction. One of the most notorious ICD failures, which resulted in loss of life, was ultimately patched by a software fix. The interval of time from when the software fix was available until the time that it was fully deployed was a large number of days; The interval of time from first patient death due to the malfunction until curative software deployment was even longer. If the remotely controlled defibrillation technology described herein and in the referenced applications had been available:
a) The problem might have been identified sooner by self-reporting fault detecting telemetry;
b) From the time of problem identification, remote MPs could have performed a watchdog function and possibly over-ridden any inappropriate ICD action; and
c) The software patch would have been disseminated in hours, rather than over a period of days to weeks.
The disclosure herein addresses:                Apparatus and methods by which an AED may be simply modified to operate as a remotely controlled defibrillator by the attachment of a communication device;        Apparatus and methods by which a cellular telephone or other personal communication device may be simply modified, to operate in conjunction with an AED;        An adapter device, which when attached to an AED and to a cellular telephone or other personal communication device, allows the three devices in conjunction to operate as a remotely controlled defibrillator.        Facilitation of the remote control of manually operated external defibrillators and pacemakers using an adapter-based system.        Facilitation of the remote control of implanted pacemakers and defibrillators using an adapter based system.        
The disclosure also addresses the use of an adapter to                facilitate communication among multiple medical devices;        facilitate communication between (i) multiple medical devices; and (ii) a communications relay unit;        facilitate communication between (i) multiple medical devices; and (ii) a recipient of information produced by one or more of the devices; and        facilitate communication between (i) multiple medical devices; and (ii) a source of control for one or more of the devices.        